By Brendan Carrion
Book Review:
Business is Dead
Resurrecting Entrepreneurship Through Fan-Focused Venture
by Neil A. Cohen
Copyright 2019, Permuted Press
118 pgs
I have spent my life at conventions. I’m not bragging. At least I’m not sure that I am.
I started going to Star Trek conventions when I was in middle school. This was back when Star Trek: the Next Generation was on broadcast television in syndication and that franchise was in the midst of a renaissance. The conventions were held in a dying colosseum in downtown Phoenix, not far from a railyard. The inside of the colosseum smelled like depression and decay. You could buy hot dogs wrapped in tin foil and Diet Coke in the cups we now associate with @fuckjerry. There were a couple dudes there dressed as Klingons annually, and I think, once towards the end of the ST:TNG era, I saw my first Borg. This was decades before the word “cosplay” made it into the national parlance and the concept of “geek culture” meaning big business for for multimedia conglomerates.
I guess this is all a long winded way of saying that I am intimately familiar with the life that Neil Cohen describes in his latest book: Business is Dead, Resurrecting Entrepreneurship Through Fan Focused Venture.
Business is Dead is a quick, non-fiction read that explores the world of what Cohen describes as the “fantreprenuer”, a person who is leveraging their love of a particular subculture “fandom” into a business endeavor. The book is not a how-to guide on starting a business or mapping out a business plan, but rather serves as a series of inspirational anecdotes to get you up out of your seat and pursuing a life as a vendor at cons.
Neil Cohen
Now, this is a pretty specific calling, and I think that Cohen acknowledges that. Cohen himself is the author of a series of zombie apocalypse novels called the Exit Zero trilogy. It’s clear from the way that Cohen writes about his experiences that he’s had a great time in the world of cons, that he’s met a lot of people and made a lot of friends. He wants to share this world with you, the reader. There is a little bit of autobiography in the front, which segues into a chapter about the type of mettle you’ll need to thrive in this environment. The second half of the book, maybe two-thirds, is made up of interviews he conducted with fantrepreneurs that he has met along the way.
So, what I like about this book is that it’s full of real deal straight talk about the kind of time, energy and disposition that it takes to do something like this. The barrier between fan and content creator for pop culture has never been thinner or more permeable. But there is still a barrier and you have to work hard to break through it. A person cannot really overstate how hard it is to get a toe-hold in their respective industry and how much work you are going to have to put in on the front end. Cohen is great in the way that he describes this.
Chapter Two is really the sweet spot of the book. I recommend it to anyone who wants to start a podcast, do YouTube reviews, start cosplaying, I mean, whatever. Whatever it is you want to do, you are going to encounter hurdles, and Cohen gives some of the best advice I’ve read for understanding them at the outset so that you can make an informed decision before you bite off more than you can chew.
I do have a couple of questions about Business is Dead, though.
I think the title is a bit of a come on, honestly. Does entrepreneurship need “resurrecting”? Aren’t we in the center of a massive realignment of the way that capitalism itself functions? Aren’t people commoditizing themselves as brands whose influence can be bought and sold on social media platforms? Isn’t participation in the gig economy the recommended way to pay for the overpriced car you bought or the staggering wedding you are planning? I dunno, maybe I’m splitting hairs.
Neil Cohen
Also, the book is strangely oriented towards fans of The Walking Dead and it’s related properties. While the back of the book states that the author was, “Sparked [sic] by his fandom of The Walking Dead”, this is the only tell that we are about to start reading a book that is very TWD centric. There are a lot of anecdotes and inside jokes in here that I imagine make more sense to people who are fans of the show. The book’s laser-like focus on this particular property isn’t really a problem; if you are immersed in a fan culture, you can relate. But the specificity of the experience feels like it comes out of nowhere.
Similarly, the book seems heavily predisposed towards conventions as a source of revenue, which of course in that line of work, they are. But the book sort of glosses over the radical changes in social media and online selling that con appearances are often just there to buttress. You could walk away from Business is Dead with the idea that the fan con is the primary source of revenue for businesses of this type, when in my experience that is simply not the case. The con is where you make your name, the internet is where you sell your goods. But that is simply my perspective.
Lastly, I wish that the interviews had been a bit more literal. These aren’t really interviews in the way that you might be accustomed to; for example, the well known Playboy format or the Terry Gross Fresh Air format. The interviews are really more like summaries of conversations that Cohen had, I presume, at cons. Rarely are the subjects even quoted in their own words. This isn’t to say that there aren’t important lessons to be learned from these vignettes - there are. But the interview portion of the book lacks the depth and tooth that I have come to expect from a voracious diet of, for instance, podcasts.
In closing, I think that Business is Dead is a good read if you are planning on taking on an entrepreneurial endeavor such as this. It’s a similarly good read if you are already heavily immersed in one. It’s the kind of book that fills you with the author’s energy and enthusiasm for the work that he is doing, and reminds you why you set out on this path yourself. It would make an especially good gift for a friend who you know might be thinking about, or is in the process of, launching a business like this.
I’m going to hang on to my copy of Business is Dead. I’m going to keep it on my bedside table, or not far from my computer. When I’m feeling down about my own efforts, I will return to its advice and inspiration. Especially Chapter Two - that’s where the money is.
Business is Dead on Amazon:
Learn more about Neil Cohen:
https://www.amazon.com/Neil-Cohen/e/B00H13LZ8U%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share
Follow Neil Cohen
Brendan Carrion is an independent game designer living in Phoenix, Arizona. The ashcan for his roleplaying game, Ravenous, is due out in August of 2020. In the meantime he can be found as producer and co-host of the anarcho-horror roleplaying podcast Full Metal RPG.
Have you listened to our HORROR Podcast? This week on Beyond The Void Horror Podcast. We took on a few 90’s Lucio Fulci films! One that was written & Directed by him called Voices From Beyond (1991) and another that was a collaborative movie made with Dario Argento (and Lucio Fulci) called The Wax Mask (1997) Check it out! Listen on iTunes Here or on Spotify here!